One consistent theme in the responses to Arrington’s post is that blame isn’t helpful. The underlying causes of gender inequity and other diversity problems in the tech industry are complex, including education, cultural norms, the advantages of the “old boys club”, and sexism.* Most people I talk to, no matter what their gender, agree that it would be a better if the industry and their organization were more balanced.**

Reach out when you’re hiring. The Geek Feminism Wiki’s resource page is a good starting point for this. At my most recent startup, we made sure to get our job descriptions reviewed by women and diversity experts to make sure they were equally inviting to women, and routinely posted them on Digital Eve Seattle as well as other lists. And if any angels and VCs happen to be reading this, please pay attention: you’re in a uniquely leveraged position to encourage diversity, so please work towards having a diverse team yourselves as well as encouraging diversity in your companies.

Reach out even when you’re not hiring. Allyson Kapin (aka @WomenWhoTech) and Aliza Sherman both list some of the many organizations working in this space: Anita Borg Institute, She’s Geeky, Women Who Tech, National Women of Color Technology Conference, Women 2.0, Girls in Tech, Astia, Pipeline Women …. In Seattle, there’s TechMavens and the Professional Women of Color Network as well as Digital Eve. Get involved with them. If you’re looking for expert speakers at a conference or event, they’ve got plenty of good resources. And don’t forget Twitter; follow hashtags like #geekfeminism, #womaninnovator, and #fem2 and RT stuff you think people will find interesting.

Get out of your cultural cocoon (as suggested by Carol Tran of Chic Meets Geek in this excellent video). Shireen Mitchell points out that using social media to diversify your online network is only the first step; real world connections matter a lot too. Last month I went to a CRAVE Seattle networking event, and got to experience the role reversal of being one of only two guys in a room and realizing that everybody was looking at me and wondering what I was doing there — and met a bunch of people I never would have otherwise.

Mention women, not just men:*** track the ratio of men to women that you mention in your email, blog posts, tweets, or “top 25” lists “. Is it lopsided? As K. Tempest Bradford describes on Geek Feminism, it can happen easily enough: “when measuring the nebulous concept of ‘influence’ a lot of gut decisions are made that have more to do with personal perceptions than other factors.” If so, look for ways to bring balance. If you’re giving out awards, look at your committee: if they’re 80% male, then you probably won’t have a lot of women finalists and winners.

Of course, these only scratch the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more good suggestions in the articles and sites I link to above — and please drop your own in the comments!

{ 12 }

Comments

I learned a long time ago that the communication patterns that legendarily plague male-female relationships are repeated in professional relationships. I’m consistently stunned by the confident — even arrogant — things that many male techs say, while no female tech I know speaks (or thinks) that way.

Trying to found my own start-up, I find myself stumbling over this constantly. “I want to” “We think” “I hope that”. Weak words I would edit from anyone else’s presentation.

I don’t think this is entirely an issue of self-confidence, though that comes into play. Girls are taught to speak differently, and as women we still do.

I have actually begun to psych myself up for communications by pretending it is not my project I’m promoting. My entire demeanor shifts when I do this. I go from being a little embarrassed to dare such a project, to being able to really talk about how exciting I think this project really is.

I’m also actively getting involved in entrepreneurial groups. I need those role models far more than I ever needed guidance in grad school. It’s been a surprise to me — I think of myself as someone who can do what I set out to do, but a constant stream of decisions to make and touting my own project are taxing my personality in ways I did not anticipate.

codeamazon, excellent point on different communications style. I’m prone to unnecessarily weakening words as well; as you say, it’s not necessarily self-confidence; it’s just a style that I’ve become used to. So I usually ask somebody with a sharp eye for feedback on my drafts. And it’s a great suggestion on pretending it’s not your own project!

Also a good point about entrepeneurial groups and role models. This relates to the smashing finale of the post that I haven’t quite written yet 🙂

[…] or more women entrepreneurs. But I do know that it’s a really, really complex problem, and there’s a lot men and women can do to help solve it. Categorized as entrepreneurship, feminism, jobs, social issues, […]

Awesome! Thanks for providing an astute summary and some real and effective (seeming?) suggestions for starting to remedying this problem.

Obviously this isn’t just a problem for women, nor just in technology… we run across the problem anytime our society has an “in” group that we want to figure out how to equalize (immigrants, race, sex, age, etc.). Since the male/female ratio is likely to stay about even throughout society, it might be an easier(?)/good(?) place to really try to work it out and benefit a whole lot of other “out” groups. I really hope this conversation is the beginning to some solid progress in figuring this out, enabling us to apply the lessons to other situations too!

[…] I really liked about her post was that in addition to explaining some of the issues, she points to this post which suggests concrete things that both men and women can do to help more women get into tech, and […]

Very true, mara. I’ll revise to emphasize that more. Also I’ll probably be doing follow-on posts on other dimensions of diversity.

And also good points Beth. It’s a multi-dimensional matrix of oppression. The same day as Arrington’s post, TechCrunch also ran an excellent article by Vivek Wadwha about age bias in high tech. And going back to mara’s point, this is yet another example of intersectionality. Older women in general face even deeper biases than older men or younger women; older blacks face deeper biases than older whites; and it’s even worse for older black women. Or as we say in the world of theory, “intersectionality rears its ugly head!”

Jon, I’ve found it incredibly helpful that you’ve always challenged the status quo by simply asking, “Is anything wrong with this picture?”

Of course, your hidden meaning was, “Are various viewpoints represented?” But I can’t share a link or lend my appreciation to a site or discussion without first asking if they’re speaking for those beyond white males. And online, it’s fairly hard to ever answer that question in the affirmative.

So one thing each of us can do is this: before you share, ask yourself if different viewpoints are represented. And if not, even if you continue to share, contact the parties who are publishing the material and ask that they bring some more diverse voices into the picture.

Interesting post, I stumbled upon via the DE-Seattle list. This article and links are a good place for me to start organizing my thoughts on the matter…as I currently work in a high tech environment at (a leading online retailer) where the work culture is a bit…harsh. This environment is notable to me for its dearth of Hispanics, diversity in general and the the requisite hard-edge, workaholic (type A personality) approach.

At lunch in a crowded place I commonly here people complain of “burnout” and this workplace has an average employee lifespan of 2 years.

Start ups that are funded by investors that want quick, fast $ may be part of the issue. As a woman interested in sustainable economics as well as the environmental and social issues that today’s science illuminates, I find that the old form of “success” is a poor marker for true ethical, hold your head up and integrate your personality kind of achievement that resonates with those acting to enable the world that they want and believe to be possible. A world of population stability, where the environment is seen as that which nurtures us (organic despite tech) and therefore needs nururing and where we are all spiritually equal and nurtured to achieve our individual highest potentials. Going around as selfish and greedy, a taker- worked for the old bully construct but it’s a game that will kill us all. The pradigm shift is big and it means an infrastructure reboot as the old GPD about growth and consumption is not the right tool to do the measure. Triple bottom line biz, social biz and co-op refashions and tweaks are the new frames and perhaps the true investors in the better good should start the seeking the start ups!